Girl

(Paperback)

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A new collection from one of the UK's most distinguished poets, painting a portrait in verse of two iconic female figures - the Virgin Mary and the Cretan 'snake goddess' - unravelling the millennia of myth men have woven around them and exploring the notion of girlhood itself. A new collection from one of our most distinguished poets, painting a portrait in verse of two iconic female figures poised between history and legend, and unravelling the millennia of myth men have woven around them to explore the notion of girlhood itself.

Reviews

'One of our most gifted poets turns her gaze to the terrain of girlhood: Padel taps into that unique and beautiful time where all the mystery, wonder and mythmaking fold into each other. This is tender and exquisite poetry' * Mona Arshi, author of Small Hands *
'In these searching, restless poems, Ruth Padel excavates the violence, beauty and danger of girlhood, asking again and again Who makes you girl When does it stop Formally inventive and with a dazzling control of the lyric line, Padel uses the poem as time travelling machine, examining the acts of resistance that connect girls to the women they will become' * Kim Moore, author of All the Men I Never Married *
'This collection touched many things that have moved me in worlds I thought separate. The female body: what it means for men to look at, and women to inhabit, that maze of underground yearnings that snakes from Knossos to Kerala via Camden. Ruth Padel, Mistress of the Labyrinth, invites the reader to follow her into the dark. And to the light beyond' * Neil MacGregor, author of Living with the Gods *
'Ruth Padel's new work is a dazzling paean to the many phases of Girl mother to the woman, mother to the Mother, and mother to the Goddess who waits like a taproot in the deepest layer of the Cretan earth. It is also a hymn to the catastrophic beauty of life, to the brave human plunge into all that dark involvement without knowing why. Above all, it is an anthem to innocence, that fragile yet resilient mother of experience and wisdom. Radiant, powerful and deeply moving, these poems celebrate Girl not just as noun, but as ongoing sacred verb' * Arundhathi Subramaniam, author of Wild Women *

Author Bio

Ruth Padel is a prize-winning poet, author of thirteen acclaimed poetry collections and prose works including much-loved books on reading contemporary poetry, a travel-memoir on wild tiger conservation, and a study of the influence of Greek myth on rock music. Awards include a British Council Darwin Now Award, a Travel Bursary and Cholmondley Award from The Society of Authors, and First Prize in the National Poetry Competition. She is Professor of Poetry at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.